Kansas Attorney General May Be Preparing to Sue Colorado

Ahh, good old 'America: home of the superfluous lawsuit. Remember that time — a year ago, mind you — that Nebraska and Oklahoma got all tiffy when Colorado legalized marijuana and decided to file a lawsuit because of it?

The Cannabist then reported the states' argument that "the State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system" and that "marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States’ own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems."

Marijuana flows?! That must be some super bunk, soupy shit. My concentrates are so viscous they hardly flow at all, or something.

A year later (just a few weeks ago), there was a bit of sanity restored to the court system when U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. advised against the Supreme Court hearing the case, citing that doing so "would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this Court’s original jurisdiction."

Now, though, it seems that the state of Kansas is going about the process of making a case against Colorado a little less haphazardly. Attorney General Scott Pruitt has also reiterated the claim that his state (of Oklahoma) and Nebraska are subject to increased criminal activity given their proximity to Colorado.

Instead of just filing a case, as per Oklahoma and Nebraska, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has submitted more than 500 surveys to local law enforcement agencies via police departments and district attorneys regarding where the weed is coming from.

“There are numerous and persistent anecdotal accounts of marijuana acquired in Colorado and illegally transported into Kansas causing harm here,” Schmidt said. “But because of technology limits, the confirming data is elusive. Since Colorado’s experiment with legalization is affecting Kansas, we need to know more about what is actually happening here so policymakers can make informed decisions.”

I will not start a point-by-point breakdown of the bullshit that statement contains, but suffice it to say that Schmidt at least seems to have a plan of attack where Oklahoma and Nebraska were simply bullish. He claims these data gathered will inform policy decisions, but I am sure whatever "evidence" gathered will be used at the anti-reformers’ twisted whim.